I started outlining "Seefer Elliot" in February/March by compiling a bunch of random ideas I had written on post-it notes. My goal at that time was to create a story about a child who had some type of superhuman ability. The story would be geared toward younger readers and would take place in a world they could relate to. Throughout the following months, my discombobulated notes formed into a pretty tight outline that I was able to use as a road map to write to. In June, I got started.
It has been three and a half long months, but I finally put the last period on the last page. It feels great. I hope my next effort doesn't take this long, but I guess I will now know how to budget my time better. There were days (weeks even) where I didn't write a thing. That's not good. But then there were days when I would spew out 2000 words in four hours (pretty good for me). When I wrote consistently, that's when I felt the story was at its best. It may have been a reverse cause and effect though, because the best part of the story was what got me so excited to write each day.
Anyways...
So what do I do now? I must go back and re-read this project and see where I fell off track with my writing and see where I did well. I'll need to be critical of my work and not be lazy about correcting it. It will be too easy to say, "I can live with that." But I need to be prepared to edit the weaknesses in the story. It sounds easy in practice, but I too many times I lived with "good enough." I don't want this book to be "good enough," I want it to be great.
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